Wireless phones continue to grow in popularity in Canada. According to Statistic Canada's Residential telephone service survey, more than three-quarters (78%) of Canadian households had a wireless phone in 2010, up from 74% in 2008.

The December 2010 survey of about 19,000 Canadian households also found that an increasing number of Canadians were abandoning traditional home landline telephone service.

In 2010, 13% of Canadian households reported they used a wireless phone exclusively, up from 8% in 2008.

The move was particularly pronounced among households headed by younger Canadians. In 2010, 50% of households in the 18-to-34 age bracket were using only cell phones, up from 34% two years earlier. Among all other households, 8% used a cell phone exclusively, up from 5%. Among households comprised solely of people aged 55 and over, just 4% used a cell phone exclusively in 2010.

The greater percentage of wireless only households among younger Canadians could also be related to the fact that younger Canadians are more likely to rent than own their own home. Among households that used only cell phones in 2010, two-thirds (68%) were renters rather than homeowners.

In contrast, the proportion of households that used only traditional landlines fell from 22% in 2008 to 17% in 2010. About 38% of households comprised solely of people aged 55 and over had only a traditional landline compared with just 7% for households comprised of people 54 and under.

The proportion of households that had one or more traditional landlines fell from 83% in 2008 to 67% in 2010. The remaining 33% of households had various non-traditional forms of telephone services, or had no telephone service at all. In 2010, 13% of households in Canada were cell-phone only, while 3.6% were serviced exclusively by cable or voice over internet providers. Approximately 16% had various combinations of phone services which exclude traditional landlines.

The proportion of households without any phone service rose from 0.9% in 2008 to 1.1% in 2010.

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